Exhibition “A Red that Sings” showcases masterpieces by Ensor, Wouters and Schmalzigaug at the KMSKA in Antwerp

The KMSKA up in Antwerp possesses the largest collections of works by James Ensor, Rik Wouters and the Antwerp futurist painter Jules Schmalzigaug. It was high time to present them “closely and intimately together in direct dialogue”, says curator Adriaan Gonnissen.

Rearranging the museum’s masterpieces was also necessary, as British artist Antony Gormley will be taking over a large part of the museum at the end of May. The Light Gallery and the three Ensor Galleries have all been cleared for this. Various highlights from these sections will now appear in the exhibition “A Red that Sings”, in new and surprising contexts. “To see with different eyes and listen with different ears” the curator says.

Did James Ensor, Rik Wouters and Jules Schmalzigaug know each other? “They held each other’s work in very high regard. Ensor and Wouters were friends; Schmalzigaug used to visit Ensor’s studio.” Schmalzigaug and Wouters both fled to the Netherlands during the First World War, but it is unlikely that they met. Still: “There is a connection between these two; they are so similar in terms of colour that you simply have to display them side by side.”

Schmalzigaug: an explosion of colour

James Ensor is widely known, certainly following the James Ensor Year in 2024 that triggered numerous exhibitions. The intimate paintings of Rik Wouters, including the many glimpses into the life of his wife Nel, are also much loved. Jules Schmalzigaug, on the other hand, remained under the radar for a long time; he died young. He was an Antwerp native of German descent who travelled to Italy and there created futuristic works, veritable explosions of colour.

“Schmalzigaug was the first Belgian abstract oil painter. To me, he is on a par with Wassily Kandinsky or František Kupka,” says Adriaan Gonnissen. Incidentally, the title of the exhibition comes from a letter by Schmalzigaug.

“He wanted to make a name for himself in Italy and asked his colleagues if they had ever been to Antwerp. ‘Have you seen Rubens’s colours? I don’t know of any red that sings quite like that. We need to bring that red back into modern painting,’” says curator Gonnissen. Schmalzigaug was referring to Melchior’s red cloak in ‘The Adoration of the Magi’. No wonder, then, that this exhibition also features a work by Sir Peter Paul Rubens: ‘The Holy Family with the Parrot’.

What do Ensor, Wouters and Schmalzigaug have in common? “All three deliberately turned their backs on the soft colour palette of the Impressionists. They brought back the rich, saturated colours – colours that sing, that ring out loud and clear.”

Take ‘The Oyster Eater’, a famous painting by James Ensor. “Everything on the table there is a real riot of colours,” Adriaan Gonnissen points out. Your eyes jump from one red accent to the next, from the carpet at the bottom, over the glass on the table, the flower in the vase, to the book in the cupboard.

“Red is the colour of the heart and passion, of excitement and warmth. Red always catches the eye, like a rhythmic beat on the canvas, when you connect all those red accents as dots.” Red as the eternal counterpart to cool blue.

Synesthesia: hearing and seeing at the same time

Colours that sing, red as a rhythm: it is striking that words from the world of music are used here to discuss painting. That is no coincidence. “All three of these artists worked with the idea of colours as sounds. Ensor called a vase of flowers a ‘Fanfare in red’”.

Colours as sounds: it ‘sounds’ strange, but it is certainly something you can experience. Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which multiple senses are stimulated simultaneously. The composer Claude Debussy, for example, wrote ‘arabesques’, which are actually graceful lines, which he could hear.

The Russian composer Alexander Scriabin was the champion of synesthesia. For him, every note had its own colour. For example, C or do is red. In his work ‘Prometheus or The Poem of Fire’, he put this into practice with a colour organ. It’s on display and audible in the exhibition.

Killing two birds with one stone: “A Red that Sings” is a painting exhibition presented as a musical experience. Alongside works by Ensor, Wouters and Schmalzigaug, it also features works by Henri De Braekeleer and Jean Brusselmans.